The father-in-law of the man quarantined with a drug-resistant form of TB, will be investigated to see how he was involved in the case, CDC said.

TB patient Andrew Speaker's father-in-law is a federal microbiologist.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday it has withdrawn the federal isolation order for Speaker because a health agency's order to detain him at a hospital in Denver is enough to protect the public's health.

The action ends the first federal quarantine order since 1963. He was federally quarantined on May 25, a day after he was allowed to pass through the border crossing at Champlain, NY.

Speaker has said he, his doctors and the CDC all knew he had a dangerous type of TB before he flew to Europe for his wedding and honeymoon last month.

TB specialist Robert Cooksey at CDC, who attended his daughter's wedding, has said he provided "fatherly advice" to Speaker about traveling with the illness.

Speaker was in Europe when he learned tests showed he had not just TB, but an extremely drug-resistant strain known as XDR.

Federal health officials said that Cooksey had helped to find Speaker and diagnose his condition. They would not give any more information about the investigation.


He started to spend a two-month quarantined treatment on antibiotics on Saturday when his newly wedded 31-year-old Georgia attorney bride accompanies him.

Speaker was taking antibiotics to battle a tennis-ball-size infection in his lung, a doctor said. Doctors said his treatment could include surgery to remove the infected tissue if the drugs do not work.

The tuberculosis was discovered when Speaker had a chest X-ray in January for a rib injury.

According to the CDC, Health officials have contacted 160 of the 292 US citizens who were on the same Atlanta-to-Paris flight as Speaker, on May 12.

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